St. Louis Children's Hospital Announces New President

Joan Magruder, who has served as president of Missouri Baptist Medical Center, will become president of St. Louis Children’s Hospital March 1.

John Antes will succeed Magruder as president of Missouri Baptist Medical Center effective March 18. Antes currently is president of Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital and Progress West Hospital in St. Charles County.

The changes were announced Feb. 1 by Lee Fetter, St. Louis Children's Hospital's current president, and BJC group president to whom the newly named presidents will report. Fetter served as president of St. Louis Children’s Hospital since 2002 and has assumed expanded leadership responsibilities for several BJC hospitals and learning and innovation initiatives.

“I am very pleased to announce these hospital president appointments from the wealth of leadership talent and experience within BJC,” said Fetter. “Joan Magruder has provided exceptional leadership at Missouri Baptist and will bring great energy and passion to her new role at Children’s. In John Antes, Missouri Baptist also gains an extremely talented and dynamic president who has created a very strong and better-integrated presence for our St. Charles County hospitals.”

With the appointment at Children’s, Magruder marks a return to academic medicine. She joined BJC as vice president of business development, physician services and alternate care sites in 2000 from Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, where she served as administrator of the department of surgery, outpatient services, transplantation and the physician group practice. Magruder holds a master’s degree in business administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.

“I am so honored to become the new president of one of the premier children’s hospitals in the country and am looking forward to working in partnership with the St. Louis Children’s employees and Washington University physicians who bring hope, healing and expert medical care to children and their families,” said Magruder.

Antes joined BJC in 2005 to help with planning and community engagement during the construction of Progress West Hospital, the region’s first new hospital building project in 20 years. He has served as president of PWHC since its opening in 2007, and added responsibility as president of Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital in 2009, with a goal of further integrating BJC hospital services in St. Charles County. Prior to BJC, Antes was president of MedCath’s Heart Hospital of Milwaukee. He holds a master’s degree in health administration from Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Memphis State University.

“I am filled with pride for the accomplishments we achieved together in St. Charles County over the past several years,” said Antes. “I am also looking forward with excitement to the new opportunities that lie ahead and am honored to carry on the Missouri Baptist legacy.”

A search is under way for a new president for Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital and Progress West Hospital.

St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Missouri Baptist Medical Center are part of BJC HealthCare, one of the largest nonprofit health care organizations in the country, delivering services to residents primarily in the greater St. Louis, mid-Missouri and southern Illinois regions. Services include inpatient and outpatient care, primary care, community health and wellness, workplace health, home health, community mental health, rehabilitation, long-term care and hospice.